A good UPS: a long and healthy life for our computer!
Nowadays, pure energy is becoming ever more precious: an unstable economy and the liberalization of the electricity networks are a cause of increasing concern for the regularity and quality of electricity supply.
An Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), is the electronic device that ensures your computer is supplied with the right kind and amount of energy no matter what the conditions of the electricity network.
A good UPS not only intervenes when there is a cut in the utility power supply, it must also protect from brownouts and peaks in voltage and, most of all, it needs to provide a constant supply of clean energy with precise characteristics, in order to achieve and maintain an optimal functioning of the computer over time.
Just as the engine of a modern car can be damaged or even destroyed by a little water or dirt falling into its tank, a peak in electricity can burn the computer’s logic board in an instant. Minor electric disturbances can, in time, damage not only the computer’s power supply unit, but all of its components, leading it to a “premature death” that has no apparent cause - like a bolt of lightning or a short circuit. Furthermore, “dirty” electricity can interfere with the sensitive calculating processes of the processors and disturb the ADSL signal.
It would therefore be a mistake to choose a UPS solely on the basis of the power needs. A low quality UPS can be ineffective and even damaging, an overtly powerful UPS increases consumption for no reason and is not necessarily better.
This is why choosing a UPS with the adequate technical characteristics and power is important. The following is a description of the main technologies available.
UPS off-line
 These are the least expensive and offer lower levels of protection.
Once the battery is charged it is set aside and the supply flows directly from the network to the connected device, without being “cleaned”. If the power supply is interrupted, a control circuit brings the battery into action.
Cheap…
Line-interactive UPS with pseudo-sinewave
The most common UPS on the market.
They analyse incoming electricity correcting the small disturbances that are ever more frequent on the network but generate an electric voltage that can be represented by a pseudo-sinewave (squared with sharp angles).
In order to process such a rough and harsh type of current, the power supply unit is forced to work overtime, which increases its energy use and wear.
Not suited for Mac’s and the best PC’s sophisticated power supply units
Line-interactive UPS with a perfect sinewave
 This type of technology is normally only employed for medium or large capacity UPS.
The manner through which the energy is “purified”, generating a voltage that presents a pure sinewave, determines their effectiveness and consumption: usually an analogical technology is used, which is not particularly efficient.
Good for Macs, not so good for the environment.
Double conversion UPS
Bulky and very expensive.
Current is converted from AC into DC in order to feed the battery pack and then vice versa to feed the device that needs protection. They yield a high level of protection but require careful maintenance and have high levels of consumption, up to 10 times those of a normal line-interactive UPS.
For industrial use.
Line-interactive UPS with perfectly sinesoidal wave
and Eco-Efficiency technology: an iDowell exclusive
 All iDowell UPS, even the smallest ones, are of the line-interactive type with a pure sinusoidal wave, envisioned to guarantee efficiency and a long lasting life for Apple computers.
The exclusive Eco-efficiency technology – designed for a constant and optimal energy management, allows reducing consumption by up to 75% of other UPS with equal power.
With current energy prices, an iDowell UPS will repay your initial investment within five years of use.
Ideal for Macs, for consumption and the environment.
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